ChocoWeekend
Feb. 13th, 2012 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotheranonThe theme for the weekend was chocolate :)
On Saturday D. and I went to a historic chocolate sampler event at a local historic home. Their foodways historian prepared examples of 17th-20th century chocolate recipes accompanied by an informal lecture on the history of chocolate from harvesting to end product, and the improvements in quality control and seasoning that took it from a bitter, watery drink for the wealthy in the 17th century to the democratized sweet everyone knows today.
Most interesting discoveries:
Sunday was the ChocoTherapy fencing open. No chocolate was in evidence but I had a good time anyway, and did surprisingly well. Probably the best I've ever done at a C and under event, I wound up finishing in the middle of the pack instead of towards the end, and there were some very good and difficult fencers there! I stayed as long as I could after I was eliminated to watch my clubmates keep going.
So clearly tons of chocolate is the ideal, nay, PERFECT preload for quality fencing! I'll have to test this again in the future. Lemme just get a slab of lightly sweetened Baker's chocolate and I'm good to go :P
On Saturday D. and I went to a historic chocolate sampler event at a local historic home. Their foodways historian prepared examples of 17th-20th century chocolate recipes accompanied by an informal lecture on the history of chocolate from harvesting to end product, and the improvements in quality control and seasoning that took it from a bitter, watery drink for the wealthy in the 17th century to the democratized sweet everyone knows today.
Most interesting discoveries:
- Dark chocolate, plain or with nuts and spices was and is primarily a European taste, where American chocolatiers have focused on milk chocolate variations (though this is changing)
- Baking soda wasn't used until the 19th century so cakes were much denser
- Dutch pressing transformed everything chocolate related, as cocoa is easier to blend with other ingredients. It also introduced quality control (turns out the percentage listed on some dark chocolates is not a measure of cocoa powder but of cocoa butter - that's the part that's bitter)
- the "Baker" in baker's chocolate is a family name, not a description (chocolate for baking)
- Perhaps most surprising of all that I find Baker's chocolate with just enough sugar and vanilla to keep it from tasting chalky alarmingly wonderful. It has the perfect sticky smooth density and goes really well with Belgian waffles! It was presented as an example of 17th century chocolate that we could season to taste but I couldn't stop noshing as is...
Sunday was the ChocoTherapy fencing open. No chocolate was in evidence but I had a good time anyway, and did surprisingly well. Probably the best I've ever done at a C and under event, I wound up finishing in the middle of the pack instead of towards the end, and there were some very good and difficult fencers there! I stayed as long as I could after I was eliminated to watch my clubmates keep going.
So clearly tons of chocolate is the ideal, nay, PERFECT preload for quality fencing! I'll have to test this again in the future. Lemme just get a slab of lightly sweetened Baker's chocolate and I'm good to go :P
